Sorry to all our devoted readers for the prolonged absence. We spent the past two days in San Pedro De Macoris, a small town about an hour from Santo Domingo that is the undisputed baseball capital of the island. We got back to the big city, and internet access about an hour ago. So, lemme catch you guys up.

Feliz año nuevo! And what a new year it was. We spent the 31st in Santo Domingo planning the week ahead and resting up for the the evening. Come nightfall we made our way down to the harbor where the festivities were going on. We were joined by 4 american students from William and Mary who are in the country working on a medical clinic in one of the poorest pueblos in Santo Domingo. Interestingly enough the party doesn´t start until well after midnight. Dominicans stay at home with their families to ring in the new year, and only then go out to party. Likewise, we waited til half past midnight to start our fiesta. When we arrived at the center of la zona colonidad, in the shadow of Christopher Columbus´house we found dozens of bands playing on street corners, and mergengue blairing out of every shop. The dominicans, already an overtly happy and friendly people were in full celebration. Every stranger we would pass would pat us on the back and yell Feliz año nuevo! We quickly picked up on the custom and wound our way through the streets spreading new year cheer at the top of our lungs. At the center of it all was a huge stage set up in the central plaza. Unfortunately we arrived just as the band was taking a break. We took the opportunity as a chance to grab some Ron and Cerveza and headed down to the sea shore. It only took about ten minutes for the cops to come along and usher us back towards the masses, but in that time we watched the moon rise, almost fell in the water, and got sand permanently stuck in our shoes. From the rocks we followed our ears to the nearest source of Merengue. It was an open air bar on the main oceanside street packed with locals. We found a table and then introduced ourselves to every person in the bar with a Feliz año Nuevo and a hug. After a little more ron and a lot more cerveza our feet took over. The locals were happy to teach us some merengue moves and we did our best, some better than others...(I think I probably stepped on one of our American friends feet more often than I didn´t. Josh on the other hand was dancing with everyone in sight. When one partner would leave he would aproach another total stranger until he´d made his way around the whole room.)
We finally made it back to our hostel at around six in the morning.

The euphoria of new years was quickly matched with the all encompassing fear of the next night. Our plan was to make our way to Boca Chica to stay with our friends Oscar and Jacqueline. After a realy slow start in the morning we caught a guagua (bus) around five headed for the town about an hour away. Little did we know that they don´t actually live in Boca Chica. We took the guagua to the last stop and were suprised to find that not only was there not a station, there were no payphones, or taxis. In the middle of a slum on the outskirts of Santo Domingo carrying two bags full of camera equipment is not how you want to spend your time. IT only increased our worries that everyone was being so nice to us. In the past couple days we had heard stories of taxis taking people out to fields and making them walk back naked. We didn´t want to walk back naked, especially because we didn´t know where back was... We were hopelessly and utterly lost, and even Josh´s fluent spanish seemed unable to save us. People kept telling us to wait here and there, and get on this guagua and then not to get on this guagua. Finally one man took us by the arm and pulled us across the street. As soon as we got there he walked us on another guagua, said something to the driver we couldn´t understand, pushed us on the guagua and got on behind us. We got on and immediately noticed that we were the only ones there. Thats it, we were getting robbed and left naked in a sugar field. Goodbye Camera, goodbye passports, goodbye dignity. Our fears were made worse when the guagua pulled over on the side of the road with noone there in the middle of nowhere and the man told us to get off. We hesitated but he kept repeating it until we did. We get off, resigned to our fate and just being happy that its warm enough outside to walk back naked. The man whisks us off behind the guagua and much to our suprise and jubilation another one pulls up behind it. We get on the bus and the man asks us for 200 pesos (six bucks), which, our clothes still intact we were happy to comply. When we get on the next bus our fears instantly drift away. There is almost no room because the bus is packed so full of children. We end up sitting in the aisles and Josh is immediately drawn into a conversation with a girl about our age. Seeing the worry on Josh´s face she says, "Don´t worry, we are christians, we are good people." The girl let us use her cell phone and helped us find our way and get in contact with Oscar. Pretty soon the young kids on the back of the bus started to sing and their voices whisked away any last sinews of fear hanging on. We had gone from thinking we were going to die to being celebrities in a minute flat. Everyone wanted to talk to us and ask us questions about the US. Josh was asked over and over if he goes to church. When he responded that he was Jewish jaws hit the floor. Not only had they never seen a jew before, but they only knew they existed from the bible. When the driver let us no it was time to get off we were sad to go. Not only had the church group saved our lives (at least in our eyes) but they made us so happy to be doing what were doing. As we stepped down off the bus Josh turned around, threw his arms us rock star style and screamed FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Immediately hands and little heads flew out the bus windows to say goodbye and wish us luck. Oscar arrived to pick us up several minutes later.